White nationalist and rightwing agitators recently descended on Dearborn, Michigan, to hold an anti-Islam rally at which they attempted to burn a Qur’an and manufacture controversy over the city’s large Arab American population. But the protest has been dismissed by local leaders as a cheap publicity stunt aimed at generating money and clicks for far-right influencers.
But there is little doubt the Michigan city has become a repeated target for the publicity-hungry far-right because it holds the US’s highest percentage of Arab American residents. Similar provocateurs have marched with a pig’s head on a pole at an Arab American fair. Meanwhile, Christian evangelists regularly attempt to convert Muslim children at parks or outside schools.
The latest group of Trump-allied influencers appears emboldened by the anti-Muslim current running through much of the president’s second administration. Popular conservative influencers like Cam Higby, Jake Lang, and members of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA partook in the 18 November rally at which some shouted racist abuse, unfurled a banner that read “Americans Against Islamification”, or smacked a Qur’an with a slab of bacon.
Lang later went to a meeting of Dearborn’s Arab-American-majority city council, and, while live streaming, yelled at council members: “Get the fuck out of my country. We don’t want you here.”
Throughout the day, influencers racked up hundreds of thousands of views on their social media pages and Lang promoted his bid for a US Senate seat in Florida.
The aim is to “monetize” their hate through campaign donations and social media views, said Dawud Walid, director of CAIR-Michigan. “Anti-Muslim bigotry is the only acceptable form of overt bigotry in America and it can reward people monetarily,” Walid said. “People can monetize anti-Muslim bigotry through clicks and donations, so it’s not just something that is an issue of hate – hating Muslims pays financial dividends.”
Dearborn is a Detroit suburb of about 110,000 that is around 55% Arab-American, with heavy Yemeni and Lebanese populations that began moving here decades ago, often for auto plant jobs. The city was a Democratic stronghold until Trump won it by about 4% in the last election amid deep frustration over the Biden administration’s role in the Gaza genocide. Some former Biden supporters voted for Trump, but many voted for the Green party’s Jill Stein, or sat out.
The latest round of controversy stems from Abdullah Hammoud, the Dearborn mayor, in September telling right-wing activist pastor and provocateur Ted Barham, who previously lived in the United Kingdom and Canada, that he wasn’t welcome in Dearborn.
Rightwing media built an outrage cycle by framing it solely as a Muslim telling a Christian he is not welcome in a US city. Rightwing and local media largely failed to present the whole story and context.
It was widely reported that Hammoud’s comments were in response to Barham criticizing the city for honoring a pro-Palestinian activist who founded the Arab-American News, a local outlet.
But Barham and groups he works with are among Christian evangelicals who have for years set up outside Dearborn schools or at parks to lure kids with candy, face painting or soccer games, then tried to convert them to Christianity.
City residents have grown increasingly frustrated with what they say is disrespectful activity by Christian evangelists. Hammoud told the Guardian he grew up in Dearborn, saw evangelists arrive with a pig head, and in 2011 witnessed far right, anti-Islamic pastor Terry Jones’ attempt to burn a Qur’an in the city. In 2010, the Westboro Baptist church arrived to protest Islam.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed that called Dearborn the “Jihad Capital of America.”
“All that is in the backdrop when I engaged with Mr Barham,” Hammoud said. “People misconstrue my words and my frustration with an individual who is a bad faith actor in our community, and apply it to a whole faith, when everyone knows the city of Dearborn is a place where everyone is welcome – Christian or Jew or whatever your background.”
During the recent day of protests Lang called people of color “chimps”, a teen counter-protester punched Lang and scuffles broke out between those at the rally and a leftwing, largely non-Muslim group. Some agitators used those encounters to claim that Dearborn was a violent place, and they were victims of assault.
They carried out what local leaders say is a classic right-wing provocateur ploy – goad locals into a confrontation, then claim victimhood.
“They escalate the situation, and they bring cameras and they put it online to show how radical Dearborn is, and they monetize it,” Walid said.
At the start of the nationalists’ march, Lang made comments in which he said: “Today we mark America a Christian country. Today we mark America a European western civilization that the Muslims have no part in.”
Lang, who was sentenced to four years for beating a police officer with a bat at the January 6 riot before being pardoned by Trump, then appeared as if he was going to burn a Qur’an. But an Arab-American resident grabbed the book before it could be lit.
Walid and Hammoud called on residents and other groups to avoid anti-Muslim agitators.
“They should be ignored,” Walid said. “There’s an Arabic proverb that says ‘The lion doesn’t turn around when the small dog barks.’ Let those guys come and howl at the wind, then go back home to where they live.”
He called on Republicans to condemn the activity. Few have.
“When they stay silent about what these people are doing, it’s a silent complicity,” Walid said.
In the days since the rally, the rightwing media ecosystem has continued to claim victimhood, with far-right figures like Tommy Robinson, Wall Street Apes, and Sidney Powell jumping in the fray, calling on the justice department to investigate and deport Arab-Americans. Lang is promoting his next rally in Epic City, Texas, a Muslim community development.
It’s this type of vitriol that Hammoud was speaking to when he told Barham he was not welcome, Hammoud said.
“What people took out of context is what I was trying to emphasize, which is that hate is not welcome in Dearborn,” Hammoud said. “Although everyone is welcome, we don’t want anyone who hates others for the direction they pray, for their beliefs, for their roots or where their family immigrated from, and so on.”
